"The gap between the ability to just explain and the ability to explain well is as wide as the gap between the image of an authoritative, stubborn, aggressive, and inhuman China and that of a progressive, reasonable, normal, and gradually more humane China."
Well, that is about speaking in front of others and about thinking on your feet. As I have pointed out in yesterday`s article, different writings can have the same kind of drastically different effects. An intelligent person can give others a rather dumb impression with badly written essays while an average student can stand out among her peers with good writings.
Again, here is my story:
Following Jeff`s instructions on my writing, I was addicted to getting help from my American classmates, especially from those who are excellent writers with enormous patience such as Noah, Lisa, and Paul. Sometimes, I spent my whole weekend in their apartment studying and playing with them just so whenever they had time, they could look at my essays. They did exactly what Jeff had done to my writing. I loved the way they taught me as I had never been trained in writing in such a fashion before.
And the training was paying off my efforts too. During the semester that I was the only Chinese within my Department without an assistantship (read The American Sensitivity), I had to wait tables on both Saturdays and Sundays in an extremely busy restaurant. So naturally, I could hardly finish the heavy readings required by some of the courses.